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Florida

—Florida was never supposed to be prime real estate. Is the borrowed time running out?“Great article from Michael Grunwald in Politico Magazine: ‘A Requiem for Florida, the Paradise That Should Never Have Been.’ He cites some really interesting history, noting that descriptions in the 1830s called Florida a muggy, swampy hellhole of a place. The consensus among the soldiers was that the U.S. should just leave the area to the Indians and the mosquitoes; as one general put it, ‘could not wish them all a worse place.’ Or as one lieutenant complained: “Millions of money has been expended to gain this most barren, swampy, and good-for-nothing peninsula.” But someone saw a chance to make money, so of course money had to be made, right? It’s the American way. But now the consequences are becoming evident. Most South Floridians don’t think much about climate change, either, even though it’s creating more intense storms, even though the rising seas around Miami Beach now flood low-lying neighborhoods on sunny days during high tide. People tend not to think too much about existential threats to the places they live. They just live.”